There's a quote attributed to RHK about this:
Then we got a Selmer which was amazing because it could do drum rolls. None of these were programmable, it had three different varieties, a drum roll every four bars or every eight or whatever. It was the one we used on "Nag Nag Nag".
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Monday, 18 October 2021 06:01 (four years ago)
Only thing is that no Selmer drum machine does fills, at least that I can find.
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Monday, 18 October 2021 06:02 (four years ago)
I can't find any organ-top drum machines of that era that have fill capability, either.
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Monday, 18 October 2021 06:03 (four years ago)
they built their own in the early days, they used kits but messed around with them, whatever they used it wasn't a standard piece of equipment
― edited to reflect developments which occurred (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 18 October 2021 06:47 (four years ago)
Are we talking electromechanical here? Microprocessor-based?
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Monday, 18 October 2021 08:12 (four years ago)
maybe a Hillwood HR-30 Super Variation (badged as Selmer)?
― equaliser, Monday, 18 October 2021 08:45 (four years ago)
the HR-2 in this demo gets tantalisingly close, if only the demonstrator left on all the congas at the slower tempo on ROCKhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6UAaRiDUzo
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 18 October 2021 08:56 (four years ago)
Yeah, that's an interesting possibility. I hadn't heard of this drum machine before, and I'd love to get my hands on one.
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Monday, 18 October 2021 17:04 (four years ago)
I'm thinking that the HR-30 would be in the same retail/resale price range as the CR-68 or CR-78, and while I don't know how much RHK had to spend on such things at the time, my intuition is that it was slightly out of reach in 1979.
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Monday, 18 October 2021 17:10 (four years ago)
why am I going "ah ha ha" like Alan Vega during that whole video
― StanM, Monday, 18 October 2021 17:34 (four years ago)
I know this wasn't the question or the answer but look how an analog drum machine from the 60s worked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipdi3THbBVU
― StanM, Monday, 18 October 2021 17:40 (four years ago)
This beautiful drum machine is always the answer.
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Monday, 18 October 2021 20:08 (four years ago)
Well, I have acquired a Hillwood HR-2, and while it's definitely got fills, it's not the Nag Nag Nag drum machine.
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Sunday, 7 November 2021 04:13 (four years ago)
:(
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 7 November 2021 04:46 (four years ago)
Perhaps if you tweet at @chrisrwatson he might recall?
― Maresn3st, Sunday, 7 November 2021 12:08 (four years ago)
I'm starting to think that it's a CR-68. It's got a fill which is very, very close. The CR-68 is brighter than Nag Nag Nag's DM tho, so I'd want to see how it could be filtered to match.
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Saturday, 3 February 2024 08:00 (two years ago)
I don't have a CR-68 tho and that's gonna run one big one to supply for this flite of fancy.
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Saturday, 3 February 2024 08:02 (two years ago)
https://www.mylifeinthemoshofghosts.com/content/images/2017/06/CabsWesternWorksEdit.jpg
Not the answer, but in this photo you can see the Farfisa Rhythm 10.
As far as the Hillwood... check out this at around the 2:40 mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ow6crFDRrA
― Reeves Gabrels' Funko Pop (majorairbro), Sunday, 4 February 2024 06:55 (two years ago)
According to a book: RHYTHM MACHINES (Volume 1) which "documents the rise and fall of the preset pattern rhythm units" there is a listing for a Selmer HR-30.
Also in the Western Works photo you can just barely see an EMS Synthi Hi Fli... incredibly rare and sought after now.
― Reeves Gabrels' Funko Pop (majorairbro), Sunday, 4 February 2024 07:05 (two years ago)
May be of help:
https://i.imgur.com/bNSU3GU.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/XeW50ue.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/pK455hx.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/zubBuJX.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/ia0rdWs.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/7kAx7xI.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/OXOxUqE.jpeg
― This is Dance Anthems, have some respect (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 4 February 2024 11:22 (two years ago)
The Hillwood HR-30 looks quite promising. I've had it on search for ages, with no hits on ebay or reverb. This has got to be just a rare beast of a box.
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Monday, 5 February 2024 06:11 (two years ago)
I acquired a CR-68 a few days ago. It's very close, but it's not the Nag Nag Nag drum machine. It's got variable fills, which brings it closer to filling the spot than any other pre-80 DM I've had my hands on. But still, it's not there. Close, but you cannot program it identically.
This is the best I got:
http://www.sndup.net/d22cj
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Thursday, 25 September 2025 03:32 (four months ago)
There's another photo of the band rehearsing here:https://thequietus.com/app/uploads/2024/03/Cabaret_Voltaire_-_credit-_Pete_Hill_1400164261.jpg
Gosh knows what the man with the floppy hair is tweaking. This article here mentions "a Farfisa, a Selmer, some sort of combo that's got a drum machine built into the top, an Electro-Harmonix that's only got a separate output for the bass drum, all sorts of rubbish".
― Ashley Pomeroy, Thursday, 25 September 2025 21:05 (four months ago)
I don't think they used a Selmer for recording Nag Nag Nag, primarily because I haven't found a Selmer that is capable of doing the style of fill on Nag Nag Nag. Maybe they borrowed a CR-78 for recording, perhaps one the studio owned. This is my best guess.
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Friday, 26 September 2025 07:10 (four months ago)
(xp) Could be an echo machine of some kind?
― I Didn't Always Agree With What He Said But... (Tom D.), Friday, 26 September 2025 07:14 (four months ago)
I don't think so. The technology for this sort of thing was very primitive in 1979.
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Sunday, 28 September 2025 07:04 (four months ago)